Friday 1 March 2013

On Greece: what should we conclude?

On Greece, from today's Eurointelligence daily report:


Confidential troika report reveals significant delays in tax collection
Greece missed key revenue targets by a wide margin last year, triggering concern over whether the government is fully committed to cracking down on tax evasion and graft, the FT quotes a confidential troika report leaked to the Greek press. The collection of overdue tax raised only €1.1bn in 2012, compared with a target of €2bn, while unpaid tax increased by 10% to €55bn, equivalent to almost 30% of national output. Two years after the launch of broad-ranging tax reforms, Athens each year still collects less than 10% of total assessed taxes on personal income and corporate profits. Thousands of Greek company owners and self-employed professionals routinely contest their assessments through the courts waiting for the finance ministry to grant tax amnesty settling for a tax bill cut by at least 30%.  The official Greek translation of the report, dated January 31, was accessible on Thursday on the websites of several Athens newspapers.

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